2017 SEC Gymnastics awards announced

331 days ago

Photo: SEC

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference announced its annual gymnastics awards, voted on by the head coaches from each institution, to cap the 2017 season.

Alex McMurtry from Florida was named both the SEC Gymnast of the Year and the Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Ashleigh Gnat of LSU was selected as the SEC's Event Specialist of the Year for the second consecutive year, while Mollie Korth of Kentucky was chosen as the Freshman of the Year. LSU head coach D-D Breaux was tabbed as the SEC Coach of the Year.

McMurtry claimed the SEC Championship's all-around title and shared the floor exercise title. She is in Top-10 national rankings for the trio of events she primarily competed: No. 3 vault (9.95 RQS), No. 6 uneven bars (9.930) and No. T10 beam (9.925). McMurtry posted four all-around performances in 2017, with her first win coming with a collegiate-best 39.70 in the SEC Championship. That total is tied for No. T11 in nation. She is one of two gymnasts in the nation to post 10.0 marks in three events in 2017 - vault, bars and floor. McMurtry leads UF with 16 event wins in 2017 (6 bars, 4 vault, 3 beam, 2 floor, 1 all-around). She has earned All-SEC honors for third consecutive year and has won a SEC event title each season of her collegiate career. McMurty, a two-time NACGC Scholastic All-American, currently own a 4.0 GPA in applied physiology & kinesiology. She was named to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Third Team, the 2016 SEC Academic Honor Roll and the 2015 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll. Gnat has led the second-ranked LSU gymnastics team to a perfect 16-0 record against Southeastern Conference opponents and a sweep of the league's regular season and tournament championships. She won the vault, beam and floor SEC event titles at the 2017 SEC Gymnastics Championship. The No. 1 vault performer in the country based on RQS, Gnat stuck her double-twisting Yurchenko in the anchor spot of the Tigers' opening rotation for a perfect 10.0. It marked her nation-leading third 10.0 on vault this season and the ninth perfect score of her career, which tied Jennifer Wood for the school record. Gnat also anchored the squad's beam and floor lineups with 9.95s for the titles. Overall, her three titles in 2017 tied Rheagan Courville (2014) for the most at a single SEC Championship in school history. This season, Gnat earned regular season All-America honors on vault as well as floor and beam after ranking fourth and eighth respectively in the events. She owns 10 floor titles for the season, which ties the school record for the most in a single season in school history. In LSU's career titles ranking, Gnat sits at No. 5 on floor with 21 titles, No. 6 on vault with 22 titles and No. 7 on beam with 12 titles. She also ranks eighth in school history with 60 total titles.

Korth has won four SEC Freshman of the Week awards, and was recently named to the All-SEC and All-Freshman Teams for her performance at the 2017 SEC Gymnastics Championship. She earned the all-around crown in the first session with a 39.425 and the first session vault title with a 9.9. Korth has 19 individual titles, including six in the all-around and six on bars this season. Her best all-around score of the season, 39.625, came during Kentucky's historic win over Alabama, the first in UK history. The freshman's score was the eighth-highest all-around score in school history, and the highest from anyone other than Jenny Hansen, who was a three-time NCAA National Champion. Korth is currently No. 12 in all-around RQS with a 39.470, and also No. 12 in vault RQS at 9.910.

In her 40th season as head coach at LSU, Breaux led the Tigers to win the inaugural SEC regular-season title as well as the SEC Gymnastics Championship, the program's first tournament championship since 1981. LSU earned the No. 2 overall seed for the 2017 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship, the highest ranking in school history. Breaux will lead the Tigers as the top seed in the Lincoln Regional, marking LSU's 33rd straight regional appearance and the 35th overall for LSU. The program owns 16 regional titles and will look to extend its streak to six straight.